NEA study finds 75% of adults participate in the arts

In the past, I’ve written about the NEA Audience 2.0 study and the use of “benchmark” arts activities in its data, which limited things to jazz, classical music, opera, musical plays, plays, ballet or art museums. But the arts are more than that, and that’s why this new information from the NEA is so interesting. Before, the data showed that only about 35% of adults participated in those benchmark activities. The new definition takes in a fuller scope of genres.

Here are some of the findings:

Using a definition that more accurately reflects Americans’ arts participation, the 2008 SPPA data reveals that 3 out of 4 Americans participate in arts activities. This definition includes a fuller variety of artistic genres, participation via electronic media, and personal arts creation.

· The 2008 SPPA data show that nearly 75 percent of adults attended arts activities, created art, or engaged with art via electronic media. This is more than twice the share of adults (34.6 percent) who attended “benchmark” arts events such jazz or classical music concerts, opera, plays, ballet, or who visited art museums or galleries.

· The highest rates of participation via electronic media—including mobile devices and the Internet—were reported for classical music (18 percent), Latin music (15 percent), and programs about the visual and literary arts (15 percent each).

· In 2008, 24 percent of U.S. adults attended a music, theater, or dance performance at a school, and 19 percent attended such a performance at a religious institution. These percentages are among the highest rates of attendance for any arts activity captured by the 2008 SPPA.

· There are ample opportunities for audience engagement through electronic media, non-traditional venues, and new program formats.

There is a strong relationship between arts attendance and creation. These results suggest that successful audience-building strategies may consist of programs that combine art-making and personal performance with live attendance opportunities.

· Nearly one-third of all American adults (30 percent or 67 million) both attended and created or performed art in the 2008 survey (down from 42 percent in 1992). The percentage of adults who only attend or only create art has remained relatively stable across survey years.

· An American adult who creates or performs art is almost six times more likely to attend arts events than one who does not create or perform art.

· There is a strong link between creating and attending art. Adults who attended a dance performance reported the overall highest rate of creative participation (80 percent) in any artistic discipline. Eighty-one percent of people who engaged in creative writing also read literature, and 60 percent of Americans who created visual art or acted in a play also attended an art museum or gallery, or a theater performance, respectively.

Childhood arts education has a potentially stronger effect on arts attendance than age, race, or socioeconomic status. Long-term declines in childhood arts education have serious implications for the future of arts participation in America.

· In addition to reporting higher arts-attendance rates, those who receive arts education as a child are more likely to create or perform art, engage with the arts via media, and take art classes as an adult.

· In 1982, nearly two-thirds of 18-year-olds reported taking art classes in their childhood. By 2008, that share had dropped below one-half (2.6 million), a decline of 23 percent.

· Declines in childhood arts education from 1982 to 2008 are much higher among African American and Hispanic children than among white children. In that timeframe, there was a 49 percent drop for African Americans, and a 40 percent drop for Hispanic children, compared with a statistically insignificant decline for white children.

Age and generation are statistically significant, but they are generally weak predictors of arts participation. Education levels influence rates of cultural participation much more than the year a person was born.

· There are patterns related to age and generation that are significant. For example, older adults (born in 1955 or earlier) are more likely than younger Americans to be “cultural omnivores,” people who attend a variety of arts events, in different art forms and settings. As these generations have aged, there have been fewer cultural omnivores; furthermore, they are now attending arts events less frequently. It is estimated that 82 percent of the decline in total benchmark arts activities attended between 2002 and 2008 stems from this combination.

· Since the 1970s, broad changes in personal life have influenced arts and civic participation. Although the “cultural omnivore” model may be declining, a more personal, flexible approach to cultural engagement is a growing trend.

· Age and generation may be less important in audience outreach than previously thought.

The Survey of Public Participation in the Arts is the nation’s largest and most representative periodic study of adult participation in arts events and activities. It is conducted by the NEA in partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau. Five times since 1982, the survey has asked U.S. adults 18 and older about their patterns of arts participation over a 12-month period. Recently, the NEA has convened both researchers and arts practitioners to consider the survey. Calls for a more accurate reflection of Americans’ arts participation has led to the wider spectrum of questions being asked about arts engagement. Results from a 2012 survey will be released in 2013.